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Monticello Road is a community arts project in Charlottesville, Virginia. Through photography and a series of public events and conversations, we explore how an art can be an essential, integral and everyday part of a healthy community.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Where are the Pictures?

As part of my coursework in Urban and
Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia, I am performing a
series of GIS (Geographic Information System) analyses of the Monticello
Road project. GIS provides empirical data to check (or underscore) what
intuition tells us. This is the second of a three-part meta analysis. Previous: Vanishing Landscapes | To Come: Backer Distribution

I
often receive process questions about the project,
especially as pertains to what parts of the
neighborhood I photograph and I how I define the
boundaries of the Monticello Road study area.

I typically answer that I consciously limit the project to the street and directly-adjacent properties
and I believe that the images will be distributed throughout the length of the street—though not
evenly, perhaps clustered around my home or a few places where I spend sedentary time. These
responses are logical but not empirical. GIS analysis lets us answer the question with data.

Through the life of the project, I have captured
thousands of images, which would have been
overwhelming. One of the features of photography
is that it not particularly relevant if an image is
made; what matters is which images are seen.

I
have a subset of selects (numbering in the low
hundreds) that are used in the book and the
frequent slideshows I present. That provides a
further curation because it reflects both a
photographer’s view of what is visually interesting
and an editor’s view of what says something about
the place. I refined my selection one more time by
eliminating multiple images all taken at the same time (different people at the same party, for
example). Through this process, I reduced the sample to 94 images, a highly manageable
number, but enough for a meaningful analysis of a linear mile-long space.Distance from Krebs Household
My first question was whether the fact that I live in the neighborhood influences where I choose
to photograph—do they tend to cluster around my home? There appears to be a small but not particularly significant bias around
my house (assuming a fifty meter circle) but most of the images are at least a quarter mile away—and remember the road only extends about half a mile in either direction so that indicates some (but insignificant) clustering near the house.

Distance from Street
Next, I wanted to know how much, from a spatial perspective, the road organizes the project.
Were the photos primarily taken on the street (within 5 meters of the centerline)? Sidewalk (5-10
meters)? People’s yards/terraces (10-20)? Within at least a block (100 meters)? As is plainly visible in both
the map and the chart, a strong plurality of images were captured on the street itself and a vast
majority within a single block.

Density
I could see on the Ring Buffer map that there were visual clumps of images and I wanted to
know what gravitational force was pulling them together. I postulated that they might be
businesses or gathering places where I spend time.

I mapped several of these enterprises with the
address locator. Next I ran a kernel density
tool and could see that indeed the nodes do
cluster around businesses that I frequent.

Going into the project I was concerned that I
would pay less attention to areas south of my
home because they’re not on my way into
town. The second learning from the
density analysis is that it is somewhat true but I do also frequent businesses to
the south, so while convenience is a factor, so I also seem more comfortable
spending time in restaurants and cafes, where I can sit (as opposed to open patches of sidewalk).

Note that the only park on the route (the Clark playground) is a strong node, as well as the informal (and now ex-) open space explored in the previous post.Conclusion
The Monticello Road project explores the intersection between people and place so if the pictures capture moments of interaction, these maps track where they take place.

Because the project is organized around a roadway, it is not surprising the photos happened on or near the right-of-way. We can see that it is a linear social space and that is an asset beyond transportation.

We can also see periodic nodes where interaction is concentrated. They are spread along the route at short-walk intervals, a key feature that makes the place successful and vital.

Phase Two of the Monticello Connectivity research project is complete. Along with four graduate students from the University of Virginia's Urban and Environmental Planning program, we explored the feasibility of a bicycle and pedestrian connection. [Project Web Site]